Admissions

Peter Gray

Peter Gray is a partner in the firm's Environment & Natural Resources Group, focusing on disputes over responsibility for cleanup of contaminated property, challenges to state and federal environmental regulations, enforcement cases involving hazardous materials, arbitration in data compensation claims involving pesticide data submissions, and environmental due diligence in large commercial transactions.

Peter has been recognized by ChambersUSA as a leading environmental attorney in the Washington, D.C., area and in Super Lawyers as a leader in his field. Peter has also been recognized by Corporate Responsibility Magazine's 2014 Legal Who's Who in Environmental Law. He was also listed in Who's Who Legal: Environment 2017 and included in multiple editions of The Best Lawyers in America.

In addition to his environmental litigation practice, Peter has a diverse Washington, D.C.-based regulatory practice in which he regularly represents clients before numerous federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation, and counsels clients on hazardous materials management, release reporting requirements, and climate change planning and advocacy.

One of Peter's areas of concentration is the regulation of pesticide products by EPA, under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Peter is one of a handful of lawyers experienced in litigating “pesticide data compensation” claims under FIFRA and has handled hundreds of claims over the past 25 years.

Peter writes extensively in the environmental area. He was selected by the American Bar Association to write The Superfund Manual (2015), the definitive treatise on Superfund. Other manuals and treatises he has authored include The CERCLA Basic Practice Manual (American Bar Association 2008), the Pesticide Regulation Handbook (2007), and The EPCRA Basic Practice Manual (American Bar Association 2002). Peter also participates as a commentator in broadcast media, having appeared on Fox Business News and Bloomberg Radio.

Peter co-founded the Association of Climate Change Officers, and he is a member of the Environmental Law Institute Leadership Circle. He has served in many leadership roles in the ABA Section on Environment, Energy and Resources, including past chair of the Environmental Litigation and Toxic Torts Committee and the Site Remediation Committee.

Peter is an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association.

Representative Matters

National coordinating counsel for multinational munitions company on Superfund litigation; orchestrated the company's defense of dozens of federal and private cost recovery cases filed against the company in connection with cleanup of contamination linked to a pesticide which the company sold in the 1960s and 1970s.

Represented Fortune 500 company in Natural Resource Damages action filed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Defended numerous Fortune 500 and multinational corporations in enforcement actions brought by state agencies and EPA under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

Represented numerous companies in enforcement actions brought by the U.S. Department of Transportation under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act.

Defended government contractor in federal cost recovery actions in which the U.S. sought a portion of the cost of cleaning up a military installation. Negotiated a favorable percentage of clean-up cost to be paid by contractor.

Defended landowner in condemnation action in which a municipality had exercised eminent domain over the client’s property. The municipality and the landowner disagreed over the effect of contamination on the property’s value. A few weeks prior to trial, based on expert testimony developed and presented, the municipality agreed to pay nearly double the amount it had previously stated as the property value.